Stuck With Me
by Kaoli water goddess
Summary: Sometimes it's a little harder to get out of your cover's head. Densi, post 3x22, 'Neighborhood Watch'


**Let's see, it's been five...six? years since I've done anything on this website aside from read. I've been the worst kind of lurker for the past few years...  
**

**Anyway, I really hate these two. Not really, I just didn't appreciate them forcing me to jump back into the fanfiction game. But this idea started rolling around in my head after 'Neighborhood Watch' and hasn't left me alone since, so I had to put it down. I'm actually a little surprised that us Densi fans aren't writing more about the greatness that happened in that episode. Guess I'm a little biased.  
**

**But I love these two and I'm pretty excited to get back into the writing gig, especially with these two. I had way too much fun in some places. Hope you all enjoy it just as much!  
**

**Disclaimer: All characters belong to Shane Brennan. Believe me, if I owned anything, we'd have more episodes like 3x22 on air. For now, I'll just settle for my Season 1 & 2 box sets.  
**

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As Kensi flopped onto her couch for the first time in weeks, she realized that the last few weeks could only be described as... interesting. Interesting good, perhaps because being able to fake a marriage to your partner, all while living in a lavish house in a beautiful neighborhood on NCIS' dime. Yes, that had to be it. It had nothing to do with the company she had, the fact that Deeks, her blond-haired, surfer-boy, makes-a-joke-about-anything, was her "husband".

She was a little confused, that much was easy to admit. The why was more of the question. It could just be more of a sensory overload; she'd gotten used to a lavish house with grand finishes, as opposed to her apartment, which was, as her partner loved to put it, just waiting for the crew of _Hoarders_ to show up and film. Sure, she had to get used to her old surroundings again, start changing her routines, instead of doing the same thing every day that Melissa could so easily do. But that wasn't all of it and she knew it; she just didn't want to admit it. She missed him.

She meant what she had told him earlier in the day, when she'd been icing her arm in the..._their?_... living room. She had starting to enjoy the domestic, suburban lifestyle, with families and kids surrounding them. And she especially enjoyed having someone to turn around and say good night to at the end of the day. It wasn't hard to admit that when she had looked at her own bed after she got out of the shower that it looked smaller, emptier.

She moved a few magazines off her coffee table and grabbed the remote, hoping that a night of catching up on her missed reality shows would help her get out of Melissa's mind and get back into Kensi's. After all, she couldn't really go into work the next day, still thinking like a wife, especially not with her partner so ready to tease her about it if she were to slip up.

Right as she turned the TV on, she heard a knock at her front door. She got off the couch and opened the door, knowing exactly who was on the other side. "Really? Having some separation anxiety already?"

Deeks smirked and held out the beers to Kensi, keeping the Chinese takeout in his arms, as she gestured for him to come in. "Oh, come on. Can't I have one more meal with my wifey?"

Kensi snorted, grabbing a beer and popping it open. "Right. I forgot how well my _hubby_ feeds me."

"Better than your Snickerdoodles were," Deeks replied, sitting down next to her, a beer of his own in hand. "At least, I can admit that I didn't cook this." Kensi's fist immediately made contact with his shoulder. "Ow, geez... just saying."

"Hey, they went in the oven. Technically, I cooked them."

"Whatever you say, Sugarbear."

Kensi rolled her eyes, as she began eating from one of the containers. They ate in easy silence, watching the Top Model episode playing on the TV. Once they were finished, Kensi cleared all the boxes from the table, threw them away, and returned to her spot on the couch. She popped open her second beer and turned slightly, looking over at Deeks. "So what are you really doing here, Deeks?"

There was the loaded question. And just the one that Deeks did not want to answer.

Sure he could tell her that he wanted to get them back into the swing of being Kensi Blye and Marty Deeks, partners and away from being Melissa and Justin. After all, it was the truth. Maybe not the whole truth, but it was the more acceptable answer.

Suddenly Hetty's little talk with them, the one about "unfamiliar feelings", came rushing back into his mind. They had both laughed it off at the time, but now, now it was making more sense. Before, they had just been testing each other, toeing the line of their still-unresolved "thing", each one of them doing something just to get a rise out of the other, as was their usual. But after their dinner at Brett and Paulina's, what with the question about how they met, both of their instant answers, and especially that kiss (cover kiss, as he remembered Kensi calling it, though he wasn't so sure about that), it just felt like something needed to be said about all of it. Hence, how he ended up on her doorstep with beers and her favorite Chinese takeout in hand.

"Deeks? Hey, you still with me?"

Kensi's voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he quickly shook his head to clear his head. "Yeah, still here." He took a quick sip of his beer, then sat back, surprisingly quiet for him.

Kensi turned and scooted closer to Deeks, touching his thigh with her knee and stared at his face. "Deeks? You are being way too quiet; it's freaking me out."

He felt her gaze, but couldn't bring himself to look at her. "Well thanks. I was just thinking."

Kensi relaxed her stance, but continued to look at his face. "Care to share?"

He smirked and dropped his head, looking at the floor. "It's just...dinner. It was...interesting."

Kensi turned her head away from Deeks, distancing herself. "Yeah, yeah, it was."

Noticing Kensi's defenses rising, he finally turned to face her. "You remembered where we met."

Kensi snorted and tried to take, what she hoped, was a nonchalant sip of her beer. "It was a memorable case. It's not every day we got to see Sam in action or Hetty signs us up with a 'liaison officer'. Which by the way, you kind of sucked at in the beginning."

He couldn't keep the slight grin off his face, but he also noticed Kensi's deflection tactics. Usually, he would have let her get away with that. Tonight though, they needed to talk about what had happened, what was said and done. He wasn't letting her off that easy. "Oh no, you're not getting off that quick."

Kensi felt her stomach drop slightly. She knew what he wanted to talk about and if he had his way, he would say it. Whether she was ready to hear it yet or not, she hadn't decided. Praying that her voice didn't convey any of what was running through her mind, she looked back at him. "Fine, what do you want me to say? Yes, I remembered what you were wearing. You kind of stuck out around those guys."

He couldn't resist pushing her just a bit farther. "But right off the top of your head like that? It was like, you'd just seen me in that gym yesterday, not two years ago."

"It stuck with me," she replied. She could still hear Callen's comment from that day, _Stuck, smitten, whatever_. "And what about you?" she questioned him back. "You remembered pretty easily."

He began peeling the label on his bottle. "Well yeah, it's not every day that a woman like you appears. Besides, I'd been in that gym for months staring at punching bags, boxing rings, and jarheads. You were a very welcome break from that routine."

Both of them sat silently, still touching at the knees, but refusing to look at one another. Finally Kensi raised her head and looked at him. "You couldn't have known that you would ever see me again. How can you possibly remember how I looked that one time? I could have just been some girl that you would have never seen again."

Deeks turned his head, meeting her mismatched eyes with his own blue ones. "Like you said, guess you stuck with me."

Kensi could feel both the intensity in his gaze, as well as the tension from their not-discussed 'thing' floating around them. "Deeks..."

He dropped his eyes as he reached over and grabbed one of her hands out of her lap, twining his fingers with her own as he talked. It was now or never, in his mind. "Look Kens, my whole life changed after that day I met you. Suddenly I wasn't just Deeks, LAPD undercover cop that no one really liked. I was invited onto this team, with people who knew what it was like to go undercover and come out. And who appreciated my skills, while still accepting me for me. For the first time in awhile, I didn't mind going into a cover because from then on, I knew that when I came out, everyone would still support and look out for me."

He paused, steadying his voice for the rest of what he was going to say. "I couldn't help but replay that day in my head. Seeing you, Callen as that cabbie, Sam in the gym, Hetty... meeting you guys changed everything, in the best way possible. Honestly, I can't even remember that op before you waltzed into that gym and threw everything off."

Kensi just sat there, soaking in everything Deeks had said. Even though at the time she hadn't known, perhaps that fact that he had stuck with her was because part of her had known he would be a part of her life. Of course, she never could have predicted just how large a part of her life he would become.

Sure, she'd just spent the past few weeks "living" with him, but it was _this_, them sitting on her couch, after beers and takeout, that Kensi realized just how much of her life now involved a certain LAPD liaison.

And while two years ago that thought would have terrified her, sitting with him on her couch tonight, with his fingers tracing patterns all over her hand, she just felt happy. She finally raised her head up to look into his deep blue gaze, only to find him a few inches away from her. Without even realizing what she was doing, she glanced down at his lips and slowly leaned forward, as he began to do that same.

Unfortunately her rational mind found that to be that perfect opportunity to step in. She pulled back slightly and sighed. "Deeks, we can't."

He moved his hand up her arms and began to trace light patterns. "You had no problem doing it earlier."

Kensi closed her eyes, trying to regain herself and tell herself that his fingers didn't feel that good on her arms. "That was different. It was a cover kiss."

Deeks placed one hand under her chin and tilted her head to face him. "And it was no fair. I didn't even have time to react."

She smiled slightly as she found herself drawn back into his eyes. "What makes you think that I'm wanting to give you another opportunity?"

His signature smirk found its way on his face. "I have a pretty good hunch." And with that, he brought his lips onto hers.

At first, Kensi didn't react. The kiss was soft and incredibly tender, much more than any that she had been used to. She closed her eyes, threw her arms around Deeks' neck and responded in turn, kissing him back with the same tenderness, as one of his hands went to the back of her neck, while the other moved to her back. They continued to kiss one another, pouring out all the emotions stirred up from the beginning, from when they first met on an MMA gym floor to just a few hours ago, where Kensi had kissed him to sell them as the in-love couple.

When the need for air became too much, they broke apart. Deeks laid his forehead against her's and glanced up into her eyes. Kensi was still breathing deeply, as was he, but they both smiled as their eyes met. Kensi let out a small laugh. "Damn, I should have given you a little more time to react."

Deeks grinned back at her. "See, told you that I'd get another opportunity."

Kensi let her hands move from his neck down his arms, feeling the lean muscle as she went. "That you did. I'm glad you took it."

Deeks wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his lap, as they turned to the forgotten TV. Kensi rested her head on his shoulder and glanced up at him. "You know, my bed feels awfully big for just one person. You want to stay over?"

Deeks looked down at her and kissed her forehead. "I'd love to partner."

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**It's been awhile since I've done this, so I'd love a little feedback. Especially since this is my first (hopefully not last) attempt at writing these two crazy lovebirds. **

**Thanks for reading and leave a review on your way out!  
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**-Kaoli  
**


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